on their driver's license. This type of donation, which typically occurs after a sudden death, allows donors to give nearly any part of the body to people in need of transplants. However, there's another type of donation that doesn't get quite as much press — live donation — which allows healthy people to choose now to give an organ or tissue to someone in need.Common types of live donations
Living donors can give parts of organs, like a piece of the liver or a portion of bone marrow. However, the most common living donation is a kidney. Kidney donations are critical; more than 90 percent of the 100,000 Americans on donor lists are waiting for a kidney transplant and many of them will die if they do not get connected to a donor.
Benefits of live donation
While it can be scary to go through surgery to give an organ, the benefits far outweigh the risks for many people. Often, organ donors know the recipients and choose to donate because they want these people to live. Donors have the satisfaction of knowing they saved a life and seeing how the transplant makes life more normal and enjoyable for the recipient. Other donors don't know the recipient but choose to give anyway because they want to help a good cause. Perhaps they know someone who received an organ from a stranger and want to pay it forward by helping out a stranger as well.
In addition to personal benefits for the donor, there are medical benefits for the recipient. Live donation is more successful than donations from recently deceased donors. Not only does the recipient not have to wait for a match from a deceased donor, but the procedure is more likely to go smoothly. The kidney is moved directly from one body to another, without spending much time disconnected from fresh blood flow, resulting in quicker recovery time and a higher overall success rate.
Easing fears of donating an organ
The most difficult hurdle for most potential live donors is uncertainty about how the procedure will go — before, during, and after the surgery. This year, IU Health took steps to remedy this concern by performing the first-ever live-tweeted transplant surgery. Medical staff tweeted about the surgery during the months leading up to it, posted updates and photos during the surgery itself and provided updates about the donor and recipient as they recovered. This is just one more step that is hopefully making live organ donation more common.
The hope for the organ donation community is that as more people learn about live donation and how it works, potential donors will be more willing to go through with the procedure. People die every day waiting for organ donations, many of which are possible to receive from live donors. Although live donations often involve a donor and recipient who know each other, many potential recipients on the list don't know people who match as donors. That's when it's so important for donors to be willing to offer the gift of life to strangers.
About the Author
Lindsey Harper Mac is a writer and editor living in Indianapolis. She specializes in writing about education, social media and technology.
